The Trouble with Sauling Around: Conversion in Ethnic American Autobiography, 1965-2002

Index

Acosta, Oscar Zeta, 24–25, 59–91, 163–64; Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, 59–63, 66–68, 69–74, 75– 77, 79–83, 84; Brown Buffalo, 4, 21, 25, 59, 60, 61, 72, 80, 84, 85, 131; Catholicism, 67–69, 71, 84– 85; Católicos por La Raza, 83–84, 85–90, 164; Chicanismo, 25, 59, 60, 61, 66, 69, 71, 72, 84–85, 86–87, 89–90; childhood, 67; conversion to Baptist church, 67–68, 72–74; deconversion, 75–77; “From Whence I Came,” 77–79; and gender , 71–72; imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi), 59, 79–83; and Malcolm X, 75–76; missionary work, 74–77; nomenclature in autofictions, 62; Protestantism, 68, 69–70, 74, 87, 91; relationships with girls and women, 60, 70–71, 81, 88–90; The Revolt of the Cockroach People, 71, 75, 83–84, 85–90, 164; and Rodriguez, 85, 147–48; and sexuality, 71, 72, 88–90. See also Amina Baraka; Hettie Cohen Adams, Henry, 63–64, 132 African American religions, 2, 23–24; Christianity, 12, 97; Pentecostalism , 74 American dream, 4–5, 11–12, 61, 70, 93 “Americanity,” 70 Anzaldúa, Gloria, 88, 129, 135, 152– 53, 159–61 Augustine, Saint: conversion, 6, 20, 103; and invisible church, 113 autobiography: as genre, 13–14; patterns in, 118; problems with, 94 Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo. See Oscar Zeta Acosta Autobiography of LeRoi Jones. See Amiri Baraka Autobiography of Malcolm X. See Malcolm X autofiction, 14 Aztecs, 23, 86, 87, 88; and Gloria Anzaldúa, 152–53, 159–60, 161 Baptist church, 76. See also Oscar Zeta Acosta Baraka, Amina, 100, 105, 121–22 Baraka, (Imamu) Amiri [LeRoi Jones], 25, 40, 92–127, 165; air force, 98; Autobiography of LeRoi Jones, 92–103, 105, 107, 108, 114, 118–27; “The Baptism,” 97; black church, 97–98, 123–24; Blues People, 96, 119, 124; Buddhism, 98–99; childhood, 118; “The City of New Ark,” 116–18; color coding, 93, 108–09, 110, 111, 113, 118–26; Congress of African Peoples (CAP), 104–06; conversion to Marxism, 105–08; deconversion, 97; Howard University, 98; Kawaida, 5, 102–05; and Malcolm X, 99; Marxism, 93, 95–96, 105–08, 118–26; Masonry, 102; Maulana or Ron Karenga, index 1 2 3 4 198 index 101, 102–04, 106–07; naming, 101; Nation of Islam, 99–100; neo– Puritanism, 96, 109–13; New Ark or Newark, 25, 93, 110, 111, 113–18; pan–Africanism, 100, 102, 104–05; Raise Race Rays Raze: Essays since 1965, 103–04, 116; “scientific socialism ,” 22, 95, 104, 126; serial conversions, 97–109; “7 Principles of US Maulana Karenga & the Need for a Black Value System,” 103–04; socialism, 96, 102, 104, 105, 106–08, 125, 126; “Somebody Blew Up America,” 125; student at Howard University, 98; Sunni Islam, 101–02; U.S., 103; yellow or “yalla” church or “yalla Jesus,” 5, 97, 98, 123–24; and Yoruba, 99, 100–01 Bellah, Robert, 70 Bercovitch, Sacvan: The American Jeremiad, 92–93 Black (and cultural) nationalism, 39, 64, 99, 100, 103, 108, 116 Black belt nation, 96 Brown. See Richard Rodriguez “brown” and “browning” concept. See Richard Rodriguez brown buffalo. See Oscar Zeta Acosta Caliban. See Richard Rodriguez Catholicism, 68–69; Eucharist, 140–41, 154; and homosexuality, 129, 148, 150–57; Irish American, 68, 69, 86, 87, 143; Mexican American , 22–23, 68, 143; and Vatican II, 69, 145, 150. See also Oscar Zeta Acosta; Richard Rodriguez Católicos por La Raza. See Oscar Zeta Acosta Chicana/o and Chicanismo, 5, 72, 129, 133. See also Oscar Zeta Acosta; Richard Rodriguez Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints, 5 civil religion, 70 Coatlicue, 160–61 Cohen, Hettie, 94, 116 Communism, 106. See also Angela Davis Connor, Kimberly Rae, 19–20, 158 conversion: affectional, 67, 68; assimilative , 67, 73–74; fake and resisted, 7–10. See also individual authors conversion narratives, 14–20 conversion studies, 6–7, 14–20 cultural nationalism. See Black nationalism dance, 50–51. See also Malcolm X Davis, Angela, 107–08, 125 Days of Obligation. See Richard Rodriguez deconversion: and Oscar Zeta Acosta, 75–79; and Malcolm X, 30 DignityUSA, 152–53 Dillon, Michelle, 145, 150, 152–53 Eakin, John Paul, 14 Ellison, Ralph: Invisible Man, 12, 41–42, 100, 141 ethnicity, 4–5 Feuerbach, Ludwig, 117 Franklin, Benjamin, 12, 109 Freud, Sigmund: Civilization and Its Discontents, 29, 50; “Future of an Illusion,” 3, 27, 29; and theory of repression, 28, 29, 33, 34, 47 Fundamentalist Christianity, 75 [18...